Scooby Did You Know?

​This one's from last week.
We helped make little Christmas
goodie bags for refugee kids :)

Merry Christmas in 363 days!

What a week homies. What. A. Week.

Obviously it was Christmas and Christmas is the greatest and it was a wonderful day and I loved it so much. I got to talk to my favorite people in the whole world so that was awesome :D We had crepes for lunch with some members which is what my family always Christmas morning. Tender mercy. Later we had dinner with an older lady in the ward and it was quite literally a feast. There wasn't enough room on the table to bring all the food in, so they'd bring it out one dish at a time and have us dish up. We were so full haha We finished off the night caroling with our extended district. It was a ton of fun. Elder Cheng made up a song about Christmas that is half English and half in Chinese. I'll try and get a video for you cause it's incredible.

​We had an Ugly Christmas Sweater shindig for ZTM :D

​Patricia in Coronation Park ward
took us for Christmas Eve brunch
to a cute little bakery

Christmas Eve was quite the adventure haha We resurrected our flash mobbing and took on one of the world's biggest malls. Thaaaat's right. We flash mobbed West Edmonton Mall. We had our little missionatonix group get together as well as some more missionaries from this side of this city and sang our little hearts out. I've had a cold for the past little while, so I volunteered to be the videographer, but still tried to get some sound out for when we'd walk to a new location in the mall and sing Mary Did You Know. I tried to sing something to Sister Hollon last night and we agreed I sound like a goat at this point haha

​The Woodruffs from Tofield
came to the live nativity!
Sister Hill and I spent Christmas
with them last year so it was fun
to see them for Christmas again!

We told the family that had us over for lunch about our flash mobbing adventures and one the kids burst out "Wait, that was you guys??" You better believe it. There was a lady from Saskatchewan that came up to me and another Sister afterwards and asked about church and what time to go. She said she'd never been to church in Edmonton and was just thinking about figuring out how to get to church that morning and then we showed up and flash mobbed. Holy awesome.

​So this is Jenna!
She is literally such a cool cat
and actually went on the same trip
to Romania as Melissa
so we were instantly best friends
because we both love Melissa so much.

We also got to go out to a littler city called Spruce Grove and sing at a live nativity Friday night. It's pretty famous and there were a lot of people there. I actually saw a few people that I knew from Tofield and Mt. Pleasant and Gateway which was way fun. We got to watch the live Nativity as well and it was so sweet. We stood outside in the snow while they had Mary and Joseph looking around for a place to stay. I love Christmas.

As far as teaching people this week, almost everyone fell through, but it was kind of a miracle anyways since I was sick. As we were walking out of the mall we were trying to guess how many people saw us flash mob. It was probably over a thousand people realistically. A thousand people saw the little black badge as they felt the Spirit of Christmas listening to Hark the Herald Angels Sing. A thousand people will someday again see those badges on two people knocking on their doors someday and remember the Spirit they felt in West Edmonton Mall on Christmas Eve that one time.

​The flash mobbers!
Except Elder Saumweber
cause he's hiding behind Elder Bonny
like a poop.
Which I realized so I had us
take another picture,
but he just hid again.
So I told him I was going to call him out in my email.
So there.

Sister Hollon and I gave a training in ZTM about not thinking about numbers, but thinking about loving people and I was almost overwhelmed with the love of missionary work. I say it all the time, but I hope it really translates to all of you how much I love this. As I bore my testimony of the power of love, my mind was flooded with memories of love for so many people I've gained through the past 15 months. They're memories I'll cherish forever.

Peace and Blessings
Sister Hepworth

​Sister Hanks, McSweeney,
and I all came out 15 months ago

P.S. So Sister Waite in missionatonix kept saying she thought she heard someone singing "Scooby did you know?" towards the end of the song and we would all just kind of laugh, but Sister Hollon and I totally heard it. I'll attach a video of it. It literally sounds exactly like Scooby did you know. Bonus story though: Last night we were at dinner with the Tegge family and Alyssa was saying a prayer on the food and she said something along the lines of "And please bless the sisters in all their...endeavors...I was gonna say righteous endeavors, but their missionaries. Hopefully all their endeavors are righteous." Oh my heavens that was not a very reverent prayer from that moment on.

​Merry Christmas ya filthy animal. And a Happy New Year.

P.P.S. Forgot the Scooby video. It's right at the beginning so be ready. Also, please appreciate Elder Bonny's commentary.

P.P.S. Sorry. One more. Sister Hill goes home in a week. She came to West Ed today and I got to see her! 😄

All We Have To Do Is Live the Gospel

​We made sister missionaries!

Anthony gave his first talk on Sunday and at one point he said "All we have to do is live the gospel and endure to the end." It only got to be a couple minutes long because the rest of the program was all musical numbers. I literally was smiling like such a fool through the whole time he was speaking haha I felt like those parents that clap extra loud when their kid has his first part in the school Christmas program or something. Literally so happy. He brought his son again who's making friends with other kids at church and invited one of his friends to come hear him speak :D

​OH MY HEAVENS
 I GOT TO SEE SISTER HEREDIA
SO HAPPY 

We went on exchanges with the Callingwood Park sisters this week and I go to to go with Sister Ard over to their area. We had so much fun! We were able to teach a lot of people and talk to a million more. Lots of people had warned us that it was going to be pretty cold and windy that day, so we prayed several times just to have somewhere warm and safe to go. Miracles, a member called us at 10:45 when we were finishing up studies and invited us over for lunch and cookie decorating with their family! I was seriously so happy haha Answers to prayer is real. We ended up delivering a ton of cookies to some of their investigators.

​The Pattisons :D

It ended up going from -22 to -17 by the end of the night and I said to Sister Ard it literally felt warm at -17 compared to -22 haha Today it's only -6 and Sister Hollon and I didn't even wear coats because we were too hot with them on. True Canadians.

We also had Christmas Conference this week and it was so dang fun. Sister Hollon and I were in charge of a Family Fued game so I got to whip out my Steve Harvey skills. We played another gift exchange game and I won a pig that snorts when you honk it and I love it so much. I named him Link. Sister Hill gave a little talk as well which is wonderful cause I love her. It was basically all musical numbers otherwise and it was awesome.

​Elder Collins got a horse in the gift exchange
and named him Rhett.
I got my pig and named him Link.
 Sister Schatmeier got the alligator/crocodile
that I put in as my present from the exchange. 

Our Mary Did You Know group has been dubbed "Missionatonix" by the Pattisons. We got to go sing at the second Christmas conference as well and are singing one more time this Friday at a live nativity in a city outside of Edmonton. We also got to sing at the Food Bank haha We're just singing all over the place this year.

​Decorating cookies!

We met with a lady named Nicky this week who is so great! She and her kids all want to come to church and learn about God. We're so excited for them. She's been texting us and working with both our schedules to be able to meet. This is incredible. People avoid meeting with us as much as possible, but she's making time for us. Literally I don't know how to adequately explain how happy this is.

​People have fun reflective wreaths on their doors.
One lady opened her door
when we were making faces in her wreath...
but it was fine she actually let us in
and we got to teach her
haha

Well homies I have about a million more more things I have to do today, but I hope you all have a splendid Christmas (seeing as it's only in FIVE DAYS). I know Imma be havin' a good time talking to my favorite people in the whole world.

Peace and Blessings
Sister Hepworth

P.S. So knocking on strangers' doors is usually quite the adventure haha This week a lady sang the words "Oh Jesus how I love you" to the tune of "Go Tell It On the Mountain to Sister Ard and I. The real story this week though is from Sister Hollon while I was in Calingwood. She went up to a house and saw a sign that said "No solicitors, fliers, or Jehovah Witnesses." Well my cheeky little companion knocked on that door with no shame haha The guy answered the door, looked right at them, looked at his sign and looked back at them. She held up her hadn and said "Technically, we're not Jehovah Witnesses. We're Mormons." To which he responed "Oh, ok well come one in. Share what you have to share." Hahaha I literally laughed so hard when she told me that story.

​Sneak peek of the matching onsies we bought at West Ed today

Currently

We're Thankful For the Weather

​Coronation Park ward had a Who-ville themed Christmas party and had a Grinch instead of Santa. Please appreciate my hair. They had a little hair-styling booth to have your hair done who stlye.

​WE MET UP WITH KEMI AT THE MALL
HOLY CATS SO HAPPY

So we've hit -40 twice this week. If you remember from me talking about it last year, Celsius and Fahrenheit meet at -40. It's really only gotten down to about -25ish, but when you have wind gusting to 60 kilometers an hour, the wind chill hits -40. Have you ever heard of windburn? No? We hadn't either. Well it's feels and looks exactly like a sunburn, except from the wind instead of the sun. We were literally only walking around outside for about 10 minutes and we looked at our faces that night and our faces were still bright red. We thought we had frostbite or something, but it was fine by morning. We asked Anthony the next day about it and he filled us in on "wind burn." Anthony said in his closing prayer to our lesson, "we're thankful for the weather, I mean it could be -50." Very true. We're all excited for next week though because the weather outlook is looking like it'll be around -2! :D

​We were trying to sneakily put our faces
right next to President's
and as we were taking the picture
he said "I can feel your nostrils breathing."
Oh heavens. 

Speaking of Anthony he is doing so dang good. He went to the temple this last weekend and was baptized for his dad and grandpa. President Pattison was able to be there with him and texted us later to tell us how wonderful the whole afternoon was. Anthony also brought his son with him to church this Sunday for the first time ever. SO HAPPY.

My new companion is Sister Hollon! She is the sweetest and we've had a ton of fun this last week. She sings like an angel so we've been singing basically non-stop haha She's been on her mission for 5 months and is so stellar. This transfer is going to have it's mind blown by Hepllon (we came up with that last night ;D)

​Our last selfie

Back story for the next story: when I was back in YSA and we were singing every week, Sister McSweeney had tried to work out something with the University of Alberta Hospital to sing there, but they said they only have groups come in for Christmas time. We were bummed because the likelihood of us all serving around each other at Christmastime was slim.

MIRACLES. We got to go sing at the hospital!! Sister McSweeney put together a whole program and President Pattison even came to support us.

​Our group for singing at the hospital :D

We stood next to one of the front corridors and our voices went through the whole first floor. It was seriously so great. During one of our songs one lady legit started crying she was feeling the Spirit so strong. She said after "I don't know what's going on, but that was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. Like, I'm crying." President Pattison sat and talked with her while we kept singing. It was so wonderful to be able to share this wonderful Christmas spirit with so many people. President was talking to the hospital staff afterwards and said we wanted to come back for Easter. That was weird though cause I won't even be here anymore by the time Easter rolls around. Weird.

​Our first selfie!
We went and ate at Panda Express :D
I love orange chicken so much.

We've been talking about balance a lot lately in the mission. There are so many important things we need to be doing from finding, to teaching, to following-up with the people we find, that it's hard to find a balance sometimes. We have to though. Life is a balancing act. There are so many important things we need to be doing, but we spend too much time on one, we miss all the other important ones. If we spent all day inside reading our scriptures, we'd miss out on opportunities to serve our neighbors. If we spent all day everyday in the temple, we'd never be able to spend time with our families. There's got to be a balance in everything.

Peace and Blessings
Sister Hepworth

​Held a skink.
They have blue tongues.
Very strange.

P.S. Last night we had family home evening with Chrissy and her kids. I don't know about all the rest of you, but my family's go to game for family home evening was always hot and cold. Well our game last night got a little intense haha Chrissy had hidden the little Olaf magnet in Kenzie's pocket of her pants, so when Kayden was moving around trying to find it Kenzie would move to the other side of the room. The hot and coldness of the spot depended on wherever she was standing haha When he finally realized it was depending on wherever Kenzie was standing, he literally tackled her to the ground to try and dig the Olaf out of her pocket. We all sat in the other room laughing our heads off while Kenzie tried to keep him from getting it.

P.P.S. 13 days until Christmas

You're Leaving Me

​We had a going away party for Sister Van Vleet
at lunch with our district

So Sister Van Vleet is shipping off on Thursday. So surreal. I don't know where this last transfer went. I'm sure the next 3 are gonna fly. So last time Sister Van Vleet left our companionship she would randomly say all the time "You're leaving me!" No no. Let's get this straight. She is leaving me. Well Round 2 of being left is a lot like last time haha She tells me all the time that I'm leaving her. This time we have to weigh all the luggage though which is lame-sauce.

​The District

This week has been an absolute blur. I can't hardly separate things from this week and things from two months ago in my head. A member asked me how long I'd been in the ward already and I had to say three months. Literally what?? It's been three months?? Holy cats man. Blows my mind.

My attempt at looking like a unicorn.

I know you're all dying to know, so I'll give the latest weather update. We've now experienced what Canadians call a "cold snap." It went from about -4ish all the time to -16 yesterday. -27 with a wind chill. It's the kind of cold that will literally freeze your skin if you're outside too long. Keep in mind we're in Celsius for all you Americans, but still. Too cold.

​There's a famous street in Edmonton
called Candy Cane Lane
that goes hard at Christmas time
and I remember people telling me about it last year.
It's literally in my area this year.

Christmas time is miracle time. I'm serious. We knock on people's doors and they actually let us talk to them. People love Christmas and people love helping people, so Light the World is basically the greatest thing ever. This one lady the other day was seriously just so nice. She had the cutest Christmas decorations that she made all over her house and just loved everything we had to say about Christmas. Another lady that we showed the video to said we were the light of her night. I love Christmas :D

​Just appreciate this dog's face.

On Saturday an 8 year old in the ward was baptized and the family asked us to do a musical number for the program. We had asked the Rainbow Valley sisters to sing with us, but it turned out they had a baptism they needed to go to at the same time. We ended up dividing and conquering haha Sister Van Vleet went with Sister Fisher so she could give a talk and Sister McSweeney came with me so we could sing haha It turned out great though. There was also a huge Christmas Musical Fireside that night that was pretty awesome too. Uttra came and came to church the next day and is just loving everything about everything. She's so great.

​Had lunch with our favorites yesterday :)
No, Sister Van Vleet's not holding her
haha (As much as she wanted to)

Anthony is doing so well! He has caught the family history bug real bad. He said he stays up late at night finding new people to add to his family tree, and this last week he went with a member to the family history center to get all the names ready for the temple this Saturday. He's seriously the best.

I love the gospel. I love my family. I love all of you. I love Sister Van Vleet. I love Canada. I love being a missionary.



Peace and Blessings
Sister Hepworth

​LRT shenanigans

P.S. We got permission to ride the LRT one last time yesterday for Sister Van Vleet and it was the beeest. So remember how the insane temperature drop was yesterday? Yeah, we picked the wrong day to be walking/bussing. We were walking to our bus stop from the LRT and Sister Van Vleet had already packed her big winter coat so she was wearing a fall jacket and didn't want to wear a hat because it would mess up her hair. It was seriously so dang cold. I had forgotten what it felt like to have your boogers freeze. I looked over at Sister Van Vleet while we were standing waiting to cross the street and her face was bright red and her eyes looked frozen and she was sniffling up a storm. I went into panic mode a little and ripped the hat off my head and tried to get it on hers.

​Gotta catch em all.

She put up a fight for her "hair" while I was trying to explain why it's important to wear hats. I finally got it on her and we started crossing the street. We were walking against the wind, and it was snowing (of course).  We looked at each other and started semi-hysterically laughing and took off across the street all while jumping over gross dirty snow caked rivets along the lanes of the road.

​We ran into Kayla from Mt. Pleasant! :D

Our New Handshake